Search - Aerosmith :: Gems

GETS A FEW ROCKS OFF!

wally gator | USA | 05/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
GEMS is one of those contractual obligation albums that Aerosmith gave to Columbia Records in order to break free of them and start making records with Geffen in the late eighties. It is in similar vein to the Aerosmith Greatest Hits disc that was released a few years earlier by Columbia, in the sense that it is basically a collection of tracks that were previously released and compared to others, its a little bit skimpy. In this day and age, it is amongst a slew of Aerosmith Greatest Hits discs. However, what seperates Gems from all of the rest, is that instead of focusing on hits, this one focuses more on the hard rocking side of Aerosmith. It's not a bad mix at all for the price. I myself grabbed this CD one time from a bargain bin, to bring to a party I was on my way to. It has some of A-smiths best 70's rockers on it.

HOWEVER... you should note that, in a sense it is a also a volume two album to the original Aerosmiths Greatest Hits, and therefore, your Sweet Emotion, Dream Ons, and Walk This Ways are excluded, so as not to overlap any songs with the first release. What I like here, is that you get a bunch of what could be considered by a casual fan (literally) rare Gems. Some of my faves would have to be RATS IN THE CELLAR, ADAMS APPLE, and the inclusion of A-smiths two heaviest of metal properties back to back, ROUND AND ROUND and NOBODYS FAULT (almost like a part one and two in themselves) ...you also get CHIP AWAY AT THE STONE, which I don't really think is necessarily one of the bands heaviest songs, but it is a rare single, that never had any other proper album placement, so collectors may spring for that alone. It also has one of the tracks from the estranged 1982 album Rock In A Hard Place titled JAILBAIT.



Now, as far as my opinion goes, and always does with hits packs usually, you should just stick to the bands proper albums. Especially the ones released on Columbia between '73 and '82 (thats as far as this collection extends BTW...'85 and up were on Geffen for the next twelve years) I like all Aerosmith albums, and especially the first four albums, are all totally solid releases, and contain the bulk of this collection. But, for a cheap, quick fix, for someone just trying to get some rocks off, this'll likely do the trick just fine."